On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Have the photos in the Fall Colors series inspired you to send in your own? If so, now’s the time. Thanks. :-)
Mike in Oly
Some of the fall foliage photos I have taken around my hometown of Olympia, WA. The native trees here are not all that showy for all color, but the city trees like to show off.
Our State Capitol building above Capitol Lake. IIRC it was the largest free-standing done of its kind in the US when it was built.
The old State Capitol. Odd fact: Ted Bundy once worked here.
Color everywhere.
Gingko.
Smokebush, Cotinus coggygria.
Burning Bush, Euonymus alatus.
St. John’s Wort.
I am always amazed at the range of colors that show up in different plants. Hope you enjoyed these.
JanieM
Love the close-ups, and especially the variety among the close-ups. The gingko is especially fascinating — I don’t know that I’ve ever seen one close up in the fall.
Geoduck
As another Olympia-area resident, the Capitol dome is definitely worth a visit if a person is ever in town, though right now the interior is closed to the public due to COVID. And I don’t know if it’s a sign of global warming or what, but the leaves seemed to be late in turning this year. As seen, they finally got around to it.
Oklahomo
I’m envious. Thanks to the weird weather that’s now the norm (it’s mid70s to low80s daytime, 50s and 60s at nite) all our leaves just turn brown and then the wind blows them off.
ETA Except the elms. They turn a dull Chernobyl yellow and fall off.
pat
Love the closeups of the leaves. As I scrolled down, I said to myself “gingko” and then, there was the proof.
I’ve been spending several days photographing the migrating tundra swans that come down the Mississippi and congregate in their thousands a few miles from here, before they hang a left and head for Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic coast.
Must try to figure out how to do an OTR, first must select from literally hundreds of photos. Sigh….
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Geoduck: I’ve been to the state capitol(about 40 some years ago) but never into the dome(though I’ve been to the top of the Oregon state capitol’s “dome”).
Jerry
Lovely. The color season here in the eastern piedmont of NC lasted about 12 hours thanks to the remnants of Eta. /sigh
Benw
This is some good shit. Thanks, Mike
Gemina13
My SO went to Evergreen State College in the late ’80s, and still loves Oly. While we love Tacoma (and maybe I should take and submit some pics), the plan is that if we ever are able to retire, we’re doing it in Oly. It’s a gorgeous little place. And if we ever need to hit Seattle or Tacoma for anything, we can hit I-5 and reach our destination in under an hour.
stinger
What richness of color! Love the reds, and the gingko closeup. Thanks!
Geoduck
@Gemina13: Might take more than an hour with the traffic these days..
Dan B
The dome nearly collapsed in the Nisqually Quake whose epicenter was only a few miles east.
Your 6th photo with dark purple leaves is a Smokebush, Cotinus coggygria. And 7th is Euonymus alatus, spacing the common name, Burning Bush?
We had great Fall color on the native trees this year. A Big Leaf Maple clump a half block away was a gorgeous gold, a rare sight.
susanna
Attending WSU long ago, I heard of Olympia’s beauty, but so far haven’t returned that far north. The northwest is so dramatically, drop-dead beautiful in many places and your eye for those sights is obvious in these pictures. Really, really a feast for the eyes.
Sab
@Oklahomo: Be grateul that you even have elms. Ours all died 50 years ago.
Sab
@Dan B: What are the plants in the 8th?
Platonicspoof
@Sab: In case dead thread:
Probably a St. John’s Wort, possibly Hypericum androsaemum.
Courtesy of identify.plantnet.org.
Elizabelle
Love these photos, Mike, particularly since have never been to Olympia.
We had a late, and long, and very colorful leaf season in central Virginia. Ended about 10 days ago, and I miss the vibrant color, although we still have splashes of it. (The Japanese maples, the occasional tree still bearing rose gold and yellow.)
All the seasons have their pleasures.
The leaf details on these photos are wonderful. Fun to look at them and try to classify.
Mary G
Kevin Drum shows that even Southern California has fall color.
J R in WV
A great fall color photo set, wonderful photos of great color, thanks so much…
Many years ago we hosted a friend recovering from major surgery, and he gifted us with a tiny dwarf red maple tree, which is now maybe 15 feet tall. The leaves are small, green with red edges in the summer, but turn bright red in late fall. They mostly cling to the tree for a long time, still on now after 95% of other trees are bare, despite the wind advisory warning a few days ago. Thanks Cary! Your little tree lives on, apparently very happy where we put it.
And thanks Mike for the photos.
WaterGirl
Wonderful shots of great fall color! So jealous, the only thing showy here this fall are the reds. Everything else pooped out.
Mike, I added the tree IDs to the descriptions. Hope that’s okay!
Kabecoo
I worked as legislative staff there for eighteen years. I was asked by my boss what my dream job was, she was shocked when I said it was to be the landscape gardener for the capitol grounds, if it included the old conservatory (not there any more).
Gemina13
@Geoduck: If it gets much worse, I’ll have to look into getting a gyrocopter to get around.